New family, old nose 新家庭 舊鼻子

It might look different from the pictures you take with your mother and father, but this is a picture of a new family. These animals are called tapirs, and the one in the middle has just been born.

You can't see the faces of its mother and father very well, but you can see one part of them very clearly — their noses.

As you can see, a tapir's nose is different from the noses of most animals. It is longer, stronger and more flexible. A tapir can use its nose to grab things to eat. This is helpful, because a tapir can't use its hands.

Tapirs, like many animals, don't have fingers. They have toes though! Tapirs have 14 toes altogether. Each of a tapir's front feet has four toes, and each of its back feet has three toes.

Between its nose and its feet, you might think a tapir's body is a little strange. But it's a body that works well in nature.

Animals like tapirs have been alive for at least 55 million years!

(Kayleen Hartman, Staff Writer)

這張照片可能看起來不像你和父母的合照，但它卻是一張新家庭的合照。這些動物稱做「貘」，而中間那隻才剛剛出生。

你無法清楚看見牠父母親的臉，卻能很清楚看到牠們的五官之一鼻子。

正如你所見，貘的鼻子和多數動物不同，牠的鼻子較長，較強而有力且更具彈性。貘可以用鼻子抓東西吃，這很有用，因為貘無法使用手。

貘就像很多動物一樣沒有手指，不過牠們有腳趾。貘一共有十四根腳趾，每隻前腳都有四根腳趾，後腳也各有三根腳趾。

你可能會覺得牠鼻子和腳之間的身軀很奇怪，但此種身軀卻極能適應自然環境，貘這種生物已存活了至少五千五百萬年！（翻譯︰鄭湘儀）

Today's Words 今天單字

1. born adj.

出生的 (chu1 sheng1 de5)

例: I was born in 1997. My little sister was born in 2002.

(我一九九七年出生，我小妹二○○二年出生。)

2. flexible adj.

有彈性的 (you3 tan2 xing4 de5)

例: Jill is so flexible she can touch her toes without bending her knees.

(吉兒的柔軟度很好，不用彎曲膝蓋就能碰到腳趾。)

3. nature n.

自然 (zi4 ran2)

例: It's important to protect, enjoy and take care of nature.

(保護、享受並且照顧自然環境是很重要的。)

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